EXCLUSIVE: WAR heroes are missing out on vital support because the Government and the NHS are failing to record how many need help, a leading veterans' charity boss has warned.

A lack of accurate data means the true scale of Britain’s veterans crisis is not fully understood

Ex-soldiers are not recorded by the Census and many are being overooked because the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) has no mechanism to measure the number of retired troops who are languishing on the dole.

He said: "There is no system of recording it in the DWP, there is no system of recording it in GP surgeries, some GPs don't even ask.

"You can have all the facilities in the world and all the services in the world but if you don't have a system of referring and then measuring and recording the impact of what you are doing, you are never quite sure. You end up being quite anecdotal."

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Ex-soldiers are not recorded by the Census

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More than 200 MPs are backing calls for a change to the survey

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Mr Sherry warned that veterans are still being failed across the board, from job centres to GPs

Including a simple question asking members of the public to indicate whether they are a former member of the armed forces would allow charities such as his to "know how many veterans are out there, where they are living, are they in employment, do they have a disability".

He said the data would be "enormously helpful", adding: "If you don't measure things you don't quite know if you are having the right impact.

"A census would be a good way of doing it.

"In this day and age it is a simple thing to record data, but we're not doing it.

"It seems pretty boring but it is a crucial part of veteran care.

"It just means you can't refer them easily, and referrals are the key thing."

RBL's Laura Pett said more was known about the UK's 'Jedi Knight' population - the last Census recorded more than 170,000 in England and Wales - than about the UK's Armed Forces community.

But the Office for National Statistics (ONS), who launched a consultation on including the veteran question, said it was unlikely changes to the Census would be made.

A source at the organisation said lengethening the document with additional questions would reduce the number of people willing to fill the survey in.

They added that data on veterans was urgently needed and that waiting until 2021 for the Census to be conducted could present charities and the Government with an unacceptable delay.

The DWP acknowledged that there was no official mechanism for recording exactly how many veterans were passing through the system but said they were committed to helping ex-forces personnel.

A spokesman said: "We owe the men and women who have served their country a huge debt of gratitude.

"Our heroes have a great deal to offer future employers, and through our Job Centre Plus network of Armed Forces Champions we will do everything we can to help them to find work, or make sure they get all the benefits they are entitled to if they are injured."